[fazfq]

Why is Signal, a company that prides itself in being tech-centric, allowing lawyers to send DMCA requests without consulting anybody?

[lcnPylGDnU4H9OF]

I don't get why Signal being tech-centric (whatever that means) should disallow their lawyers from sending DMCA takedown requests.

[jdiff]

Because it means their lawyers are firing off in random, uninformed directions. There's no copyright issue, as the maintainers of the Snap have a copyright license (the AGPLv3) to do what they are doing.

You could argue that it's a trademark issue, except that if it was, this makes a DMCA request illegal as it's not a tool to enforce trademark issues. And in addition, while the AGPLv3 has allowances for trademark carve-outs, Signal makes none.

It's not a good look for the lawyers to be completely in the dark on an issue so core to their company's business.

[tinyspacewizard]

Because when you ship a security product it's important to control who distributes it under the official name.